The Story of Your Yakult

Picture Credits

This is something that I need to jot down. Like I mentioned in an earlier post on our trip to BM, you had insisted that I bought you the blue Yakult (Yakult Ace). Then you drank 2 bottles while we were in Nanna's place during dinner time. After all, everyone had wine and you could not have that. On the way back, I kept thinking that you'd fall asleep soon, since you didn't have an afternoon nap. You were drowsy but before nodding off, you asked "Mummy, did you bring my blue Yakult?".. uh-oh.. I'd forgotten! The moment I said "No, mummy forgot" the flood gates opened in full force.

No promise of buying a new pack the next day or some at already in our fridge at home could calm you down. In the end, we ignored you and daddy and I quietly discussed in front on where we could buy some for you. After all, it was already almost 11pm! In the end, we tried our luck and turned into Tesco. Phew.. they were opened till 1am on Friday and Saturday. Before we reached Tesco, you'd fallen asleep and I had told daddy to forget trying to buy the Yakult. Luckily he said that we should buy a pack since we were already there.

Good thing too. Why? Because when you woke up on Sunday, you inquired about the Yakult and wasn't too believing when I said that there was a pack in the fridge until you saw them in the fridge with your own two eyes! Sigh.. how come you have such an elephant's memory?

Water Bottle

You always have a bottle of water handy around the house. That way, you can help yourself whenever you feel thirsty. We started with a water bottle which didn't have a straw. So someone had to help you to open the cover. How come? Because you didn't know how to suck using the straw. Maybe it's because you stopped drinking from the milk bottle at a young age. Then sometime late last year Ah Ma finally managed to teach you how to use the straw. A lot of effort had to be put in and at last you went "Yay! Got Yakult". Success! You finally learned to use the straw. I wonder how other kiddies learnt to drink using the straw.

So it was time to graduate to the Bros bottle that I had bought a long time back which was kept since you did not know how to use the straw. After all your "purple water" (as you called it) was leaking and kept making the insides of my handbag wet. So it's time for your "blue water" (bottle) and you used it for a a few months before I noticed that the straw looked super yucky (since you still bit the straw when you drank) and the insides were greenish too. A colleague then told me that there was such a thing as a "straw brush" which was a smaller version of the bottle brush. So no more greenish straw, but the part where you drank from still looked yucky from being bitten.

Furthermore there was the hoo-haa over polycarbonate bottles. So about 3 weeks ago, daddy and I walked into the (quite) newly opened Mom's Care shop in Queensbay Mall and picked a new drinking bottle for you. I cannot remember the brand of the bottle, but we bought it because the straws could be replaced. Ta-da:

Almost left the new bottle behind in Yoshinoya when we were in KL. Lucky I realised before we left the mall and luckily also the workers in the shop didn't throw the bottle away. Of course I got an earful from daddy for being forgetful. Then again, we'd also just bought another new bottle for you since Ah Ma complained that the cover to this bottle was a little difficult for you to open by yourself.

Trip To BM

It was a Saturday of celebrations. After all, Sunday was Mother's Day and Nanna's birthday is coming up on Tuesday. So we all went home on Saturday to celebrate the big celebrations. Even Alex Ku-ku was back from KL with Rui Fang (should it be aunty or che-che? hhmmm...) for the weekend.

We had the famous "Chit Long" kuey tiau theng which is from Butterworth and now has a branch in BM. Then Nanna went out with Alex Ku-ku and Rui Fang. Since we had nothing to do, we left daddy at home with his book and headed to Jusco Bandar Perda with Ee-ee. Ee-ee wanted to buy you some toys so we went there and picked out 2 sets of tools and even a tool box to keep your saw, wrench, and many other tools.

Before we left, we picked up a bottle of wine, blue yakult (don't know why you insist on it, refusing your usual red one..) and a cake for Nanna. We arrived home and looked at grampy's pond and the fishes before leaving daddy outside in the heat, taking pictures.

This pond was dug out when I was really young. I remember grampy and his friends making the pond. It has not been turned on for a long time. And it looks wonderful...

This bird made it's nest in Grampy's bamboo plant. There are 2 eggs in the nest which should be hatching soon.

As usual, the dinner menu was "Birthday Lam Mee". Yummy... Here's the 9 of us squeezed at the dining table, enjoying dinner. Poor Alan Ku-ku must be missing this... Well, we miss him too.

Like I'd mentioned before, there's also a cake. We waited a while (let the food settle a little first) before having the cake. You got so excited when we brought out the cake. Of course, you must be the one to "help" blow out the candle. Or else... Daddy even set the camera to take a family picture of all of us.

Happpy Birthday, Nanna!

Happy Mother's Day!

.. to me, to Nanna and to everyone else celebrating Mother's Day.


Got a beautiful card from you late in the evening before we had our yummy roast beef sandwich dinner. Thank you to my two sweeties.

Happy Birthday Abby

The gap between you and Abby is just over a month. So on Sunday, they celebrated her birthday in TGI Friday's. As usual, no one arrived on time. We didn't either. Our excuse.. our place is so far from Queensbay Mall.. he! he! Anyway everyone else came shortly after we arrived. We had a long table to seat everyone (family and a friend of Uncle Sin Chuan with his wife and children).

Lunch was yummy, and you even got to have a chocolate milk shake, which you were interested initially but ended preferring your plain water. On top of that you had a main course of fish and chips that you requested for yourself. We gave you an option or chicken of fish and you picked fish. Of course in the end, you finished all the chip and most of the fish. Before we sang the birthday song, Uncle Sin Chuan brought you to the entrance of the restaurant where there was a nice guy who draws on balloons. He drew a Thomas the Train on your red balloon. And it was really nice.

Then we sang the birthday song and Abby and Annabelle blew off the candles before you could go help. What happened after that? The flood gates opened lo.. Sigh.. so daddy had to put his camera aside and get a lighter from one of the waitresses to light the candle again for you to blow at! Then you were satisfied. Then you wanted to "help" open the presents. You also offered to help "test out" the toys, but no chance, since we're not at home, and some part from the toy may go missing.

After the cake, we left. But before leaving Queensbay Mall, we have one important thing to do. Which is for you to go "play drums". Actually, now days you don't play on the drums anymore. Instead, you'd play on some of the rides, which is exactly what you did on Sunday. And when the time came for us to leave.. bwahhh.. the flood gates opened again. Sigh....

Anyway, Happy Birthday Abby.

New Addition to the Family

Yup, we have a new addition to the family... Daddy's a very happy man.

Oops, wrong picture. That's a picture of you at 1 day old..

Hehe.. he bought a new 50mm F1.4 lens to add to his camera lenses. And he's looking for more.. I'm going to stop typing now and go faint somewhere comfy!

Accident

Went home yesterday and daddy stopped in surprise as he was about to round the corner to his carpark. What had happened? Ah Kong was standing there, waving his hands frantically to tell daddy to stop his car. There was an accident. Or sort of anyway.. hehe...

Somehow, one of the training wheel on your bicycle had gotten into the drain cover grills. They were horizontal and rather wide apart. You were cycling over the grills when you met with the "accident". Daddy had to get down and try to help Ah Kong dislodge the bicycle while you stood by and watched them in action. Until you realized that I was in the car waiting for them to get the bicycle out. After that, you abandoned your post and joined in the the air-conditioned comfort of the car. Hehe...

In the meantime daddy and Ah Kong tried and tried to dislodge your bicycle and in the end, Ah Kong had to go up to get a spanner for daddy to remove the training wheel from the bicycle. Luckily we did not obstruct the traffic flow. One of the neighbours waited around to chat and look at the "accident" and they only left when your bicycle was rescued.

Before we leave...

Ah Ma had wanted to eat dim sum for lunch before we headed back to Penang. Yup, we only spent 1 day in KL. Ashley Kor-kor had already left for her own holiday in Singapore. 6th Chim Poh and her friend had arrived around 8.00am and they left for Singapore without getting to say goodbye to you. You were actually already awake and playing in the room with daddy.

Well by the time we were all ready and packed, it was past 10.30am. And we headed to the city. Ashley Kor-kor had managed to make reservations for us. Daddy got a little lost on the way to the city but in the end, we arrived on time. The dim sum in the Ritz-Carlton's Li Yen Restaurant was yummy. The last time we were there was when you were around 1 years old. We went there for dinner with the Ban's. Lots of us were there. Of course with your aunt's there were many pictures of you taken then and this trip, with it being just us and daddy didn't bring along his camera, we still could not resist taking this picture:

Same chair, different age (2 years and 3 days later!). Hehe...

After lunch we tried to head to Ikea for a little walkie, BUT.. we didn't make it. The traffic was horrendous and we gave up any attempts to turn into that area. We headed back to Penang and you slept most of the way until we were entered the tunnel when you suddenly started talking about being in the tunnel. Then 20 minutes later insisted that you needed to wee wee and refused to do so into your diaper. What to do? Wait for the next rest area which was a while.. in the end I think we stopped in the Bukit Gantang rest area about 5 minutes later. By the time we reached the toilet, you could not wait any longer and halfway through pulling down your diapers, you peed right into the diaper, splashing some on your t-shirt and overalls too. So had to get you changed before we continued on our journey back to Penang.

Dinner was simple before we headed back home feeling very tired.

Our Little Holiday

Where did we go over the long weekend? In fact, we'd taken Thursday off as we still had 1 more day to clear from our compulsory leave. So we headed to KL since Ah Kong had to do something there. On Wednesday, we left for Ipoh so that we wouldn't have to leave too early for KL on Thursday morning. By the time we actually got around to leaving Penang, it was already 9.30p.m. As usual by the time we arrived in Ipoh, you'd already fallen asleep. This trip however, you managed to stay awake until JUST after the tunnel near Jelapang. You went "ooohh... tunnel" and by the time we exited the tunnel, we were fast asleep!

You woke up later and played until around 1.30am (I think.. I dozed off before you went back to sleep). The next day, we woke ujp, got ready, went for breakfast before heading out to KL. Of course, you were not in a particularly co-operative mood, so you took your shower sitting on a chair (yup, chair and NOT stool!!) inside the bathtub!

The trip on the highway was uneventful, but luckily the traffic condition was still ok. We headed directly to settle Ah Kong's errand first before heading to Ashley Kor-kor's house to drop our bags. Where did we head next? To 1 Utama. Daddy had promised you that you'll get to ride on the Thomas the engine kiddy ride like you did before. Thank goodness they did not remove the Thomas the engine. And of course before heading to KL, I'd ensured that there was enough coins ready for you to ride to your heart's content. Of course, daddy said that he could easily get small change from the information counter, but it's so far. So bring coins along and everything is settled.

After riding many times, you headed home to rest with daddy and Ah Kong, while Ah Ma and I went to Cineleisure for a warehouse sale. Before we left there, daddy called to say that I had to bring you back something because you'd woken up (because of the phone call that Ashley Kor-kor made) and asked where I was. So i went ho me with your favourite chippies.

Dinner that night was at a yummy seafood restaurant. By the time we reached home, it was almost 11p.m. Oh what a long day. Busy, but fun.

Build a Castle

Somehow you prefer to call your buildings "castles". Other than your building blocks, you'd also use anything and everything to build the castles. I guess all it requires is imagination. And you have loads of that. Here's one of your creations made with the many pillows that we have (yours inclusive), bolsters, stuffed toys and also balloons (leftover from your birthday).

Nice?

Changed it a little...

At the "birth" of this blog, the blog title "Our baby Evan". But come to think of it.. you're already 3 years old. So decided to change it a little and now it's called:

A Big Scare...

I could not sleep and decided to creep out of the room so that I could do a little reading on the book that was lent to me. But before I could settle down and start reading, you'd woken up crying for me and complaining of a tummy ache. Oh no, you could not open your eyes, but agreed to have a cup of Milo and insisted that it be a cold cup! Wah.. sick and can still negotiate!

So out we went with me carrying you and you were slumped on my body. Wanted to leave you in the dining room with Ah Kong and Ah Ma but you insisted on following me into the kitchen. Made you a warm cup of Milo and we went to the living room so that I could sit you on the sofa. Instead of sitting upright.. you slumped in a half dazed manner. Took a sip from the cup and said "I want COLD Milo!!!". Hhmm... one minute you're half conscious and yet you could still make demands! Added more fresh milk (cold one..) and you finished all in a gulp. Then I asked if you wanted more. Yup, so you drank my Milo too. Then you wanted more cold milk. Gave you another half cup of milk and you dozed off on my lap. No requesting for your "6-1-3" channel.

After around 30 minutes, I decided to try waking you up. It was rather scary as you'd dozed off and barely moved in your sleep. I was getting mentally prepared on bringing you to the hospital. Took me a while to get you up, kept thinking of that time in KL when you wouldn't wake up. Thankfully you finally woke up and could walk by yourself to the room to wake daddy up. And from then onwards, you were your normal self again. I guess you were just tired from a busy evening on Saturday at daddy's friend's house. Phew....

Ate a lot of lunch and we both even went swimming while Ah Ma cooked dinner and Ah Kong and daddy went for golf. What a weekend!

It's a Promise

A promise? Yup, that's what you told me last night when I tried to get you to sleep. Sigh.. it was already almost 11pm, waaay past your bedtime. But you seemed to be full of energy. And when you discovered the paper that I'd printed for you with patterns to trace, you came into the room and asked me to accompany you to the living room to watch you draw.

As we were walking out, you told me "I promise you we sleep" (after drawing). Couldn't help laughing that you knew to use the word "promise" and in the correct context too! Yup, our little negotiator is on the roll.

In fact daddy and I had a good laugh about your negotiating skills. We usually snack a little when we come home from work and you'd also join us. Not wanting to spoil your appetite, we'd try to give you less. This is what happens:

Daddy: You take only 1 will do, ok?

Evan: 3? (showing 3 fingers)

Daddy: No, one.

Evan: 2, ok? (showing 2 fingers)

So who wins in the end? Obviously you get more than what was negotiated. But one thing I've noticed is that you are very honest. If I give you more than promised, you'd look surprise that we gave you more. Of course, if it were to be less than the promised amount, you'd make sure you get the numbers that we'd agreed on!

Saturday Treat

Saturday nights are our usual day out for dinner. Reason: it's Ah Ma's "day off". Of the 7 days of the week, she only has a rest day on Saturday. Of course, weekends means it's her rest day from taking care of you too.

It was a lazy day yesterday and by the time we woke up and got ready, it was very late in the day. So we headed to Cold Storage with the intention of buying potatoes for mashed potatoes to go with the yummy beef pies that we'd bought earlier on. Of course, we took our time wondering about and in the end daddy bought some Wagyu steaks as well as a Black Angus steak (since there were only 3 slices of the Wagyu left).

So instead of eating out, we had steak for dinner. Who was the chef for the night? It was "Chef Daddy" with mummy as his assistant *grin*. While waiting for Chef Daddy to cook dinner, I prepared your Macaroni and Cheese that I'd picked up from Cold Storage too. I was worried that you may not like it (then die liao.. because there was nothing else for you to eat in that case!). But thankfully, you LOVED it and kept asking for more.

Here you are enjoying dinner (in front of the TV: rare case). Sitting there with one leg up!

And here's our steak. Baked potato is still missing because it wasn't soft enough when the steaks were ready...
Hope that you can join us the next time we have this..

Keeping you entertained

I found this picture that I had wanted to write about but had forgotten about it. The first time we went back to Ipoh with you, we had to pack A LOT of things. Our first Chinese New Year saw us going back in 2 cars! Yup, just the 5 of us, but we had to go in 2 cars. That was how much we had to bring along with us for that few days.

As you grew up, we realised that there were some things that we could make do without. Even now, we bring fewer diapers since you only wear them when you go to sleep. In fact, we even went back to Ipoh recently without any toys! So how do you keep entertained while you are in Ipoh? After all everyone's all grown up. There are only stuffed toys that you are not very interested in.

Why, there is a piano and an organ for you to play with! And that's what you look forward to everytime we go back to Ipoh. Furthermore, there are so many Kor-kor's to keep an eye on you. And here's the maestro:

I think that is 5th Chim Poh's hand holding on to your t-shirt, making sure that you do no fall off the organ chair, since it's rather high..

Something Special

Our birthday party guests (for both the Penang and Ipoh parties) came with gifts for you and when they left, they did not leave empty handed too. Um.. yeah, they took with the the leftover food.. but that's not all.

We had to work really hard a long time in advance to get all the gifts ready for our party guests. What were they? You call it "my buff-day frames". Got this idea from Aunty Wooi Sin (She's full of wonderful ideas) and with the help of Yvonne Kor-kor who helped me buy the frames and passed them to me during Chinese New Year. When I did the little maze books for your 2nd birthday, I had to wait until you fell asleep before I could start work. This time.. I have a little assistant to help me, so we generally start work on the birthday frames after you had eaten dinner and we'd taken our showers. There were times when you were "too helpful" and I'd start to regret letting you help. But then I calm down and think that the recipients of the birthday would appreciate the frame since you'd chipped in to help me out. It was great fun to have your suggestions. You especially loved to add all the embellishments (mainly those little stars and flowers) which sometimes got the frames too cluttered and I had to quietly remove some.

My little box of embellishments is now a mess, no thanks to you, but I have no regrets for letting you help me and I'm sure our party guests think so too. I hope they like the frames as much as we enjoyed making them.

Here's what the frames look like. No two are alike both in design as well as in the pictures inside the frames. The picture of the frames that were given to our Penang guests were taken by me (so lousy photography as always) and daddy took the time to help me photograph the other frames given to our Ipoh guests (those are the ones with the pink background)

Mummy and Baby?

Picture credit

You seem to like the advertisement for Pleo dinosaurs that are being sold by Pensonic. There's a big signboard outside Minden Heights with a picture of 4 dinosaurs. I couldn't find the exact picture but there are 3 in the background (which look smaller) and 1 in the foreground (bigger looking). Whenever we pass Minden or drive around the corner nearby Citibank, you'll get all excited and tell me "There's baby dinosaur and mummy dinosaur".

I just wonder what made you decide that the BIG dinosaur is "mummy" and not "daddy"...

Birthday Celebration in Ipoh

We rushed to the East Ocean Restaurant in Menglembu the moment Ah Tai agreed to go out for dinner. Better be fast before she changed her mind. Dinner was delicious. Chim Poh was kind to help us book the 2 tables before they went off on their holidays. Even the food was pre-ordered based on what we had in mind and the restaurant captain's recommendations.

4th Chek Kong was a little late as I had informed him that dinner was to start at 7.30p.m. and with the change of plans they couldn't contact him, since he'd gone jogging. Anyhow, he arrived shortly after we arrived. We got a room for the 2 tables and so it was a little more private. And a good thing that we booked so far in advance. The restaurant was very crowded!

After you at the fish dish (super yummy fish and almost a whole bowl of rice), you were quite satisfied and wanted to get down from your high chair. You kept yourself entertained and sometimes someone will bring you out of our room, either to look at the live fish that were kept in the tanks or to walk around outside. 4th Chek Kong even brought you to the shop across the street for lollipops! Lucky you.

As usual, there were gifts (you sneaky Kor-kors and Ah Pek said that they are unwrapped, so not really considered as "gifts") and ang pows despite our request. Thankyou to everyone who made it to dinner to celebrate Evan's 3rd birthday with us.

Weekend in Ipoh

We made the drive back to Ipoh on Friday night thinking that the traffic should clear by then (it was close to 9.00pm.m by the time we reached the bridge). But what a mistake. Traffic was heavy all the way across! You fell asleep on the way to Ipoh and we couldn't get you up to go out for supper even. You refused to wake up, only waking to giggle and laugh for 10 minutes at 1.00a.m. before continuing with your sleep. Phew...

You slept in quite a bit on Saturday morning, then again so did the rest of them who were supposed to be up early to go for Cheng Beng! Ah Ma stayed with you after she got back from Cheng Beng and I left to go to the columbarium for 6th Chek Kong. You called me to ask where I was and it made me so guilty for leaving you behind.. but we think you're too young to go to such places.

After that we were too hungry to wait for lunch, so we bought lunch on the way back. What did we have? McDonald's, so we also bought a McValue Meal for you (Milo + nuggets + chippies). Boy were you happy. You nearly finished everything. Then took you up to have a nap so that you won't be in a grouchy mood for dinner.

Woke up in a rush as we had to leave early for dinner since Ah Tai had decided that the weather was turning bad and she had changed her mind about going to dinner. We needed to leave before it started to rain. Everyone had to try their luck in persuading her to go, but she flatly refused. In the end, I brought you in to try your luck. Taught you to say "Ah Tai, kia chiak pui" and she agreed to go for dinner once you asked her to go for dinner! The general consensus? Should have sent you to ask her first and they wouldn't need to try so hard!

I will write more on dinner with some pictures in another post. After dinner we gave our dinner guests something handmade just like what was given to out guests in the Penang party. Eu Jin Ah Pek and Lourdes Ah Mm gave you an adorable hat and an organ. Yikes.. another noise maker! After a while those sitting in the living room sent you to their room to torment Ah Pek and Ah Mm instead.

Sunday was another day of yummy Ipoh hawker food and dinner of the Hakka "Hor Por Char" (lui char). As you "love" veggies so much, you had some meat dish, BUT you drank a lot of the veggies soup. How come? Because the veggies were all grounded and when you eyed the soup suspiciously and asked me what soup it was, I told you "Mint soup". So you drank.

And that's how our weekend went in Ipoh.

Up to no good with Ah Nee Kor-kor? Hhmmm...

Made with Love and Kisses..

... that was what was put in when Chin Poh (with the help of some of your Kor-kor's) made this beautiful blanket as your 3rd birthday present. It's an amazing patchwork blanket with 6 teddy bears (all with different patterns!).

I tell you the pictures (and my poor photography skills) don't do the blanket justice. The teddy bears are so beautiful and the fabric so soft and comfortable.

Chim Poh had to work on it until yesterday afternoon to complete the hand sewn patchwork blanket. You're such a lucky boy to have such a wonderful birthday gift. Here's Chin Poh putting the finishing touches to the blanket:

And here's the blanket on your "princess and the pea" bed at home in Penang:

We're off to Ipoh

Tonight.. for this:

Countdown: 1 day to party time!

Evan at 36 Months (Plus)

Ok ok, a few days overdue. But better late than never. Furthermore I don't write on milestones very often. So here goes...

At 36 months and (count count count..) 5 days old:
Height: 88cm ( i think.. )
Weight: 12.7kg

- You have no more inoculations to go for until you turn 6 years old. Phew.. no more doctor visits. *touch wood*touch wood*

Speech:
- At the last visit to Dr Mary (last week that I forgot to blog about... ), she asked you what the item that she was holding in her hands was and you could tell her it was a stethoscope. She was impressed that you knew a word and a 3 syllable word too.
- You're starting to pick up bigger words too. Such as "deneecious" (delicious) instead of a simple "yummy" or "good".
- You even use words like "beautiful".
- Still cannot pronounce "l" in words. So it's "nike" for like. You used to have difficulty with "y" too. So instead of yellow, it was "neyo". After a lot of "YE-LO", the closest that you'd give me is "YE-NO". Ok, tried showing you how the tongue needs to touch the upper teeth.. Still not working. Need to work on that.
- Every night before we go to sleep, you'd tell me "Mummy, I tell you something, ok?" and when asked what you would like to tell me, it's still the same story "Talk about the zoo" and "Talk about the school".
- Picked up from someone this "I tell you.. " and "Hey, are you listening to me?"
- Your "yes" has changed from "ha" to "ya", the word "yes" is still eluding me.
- Last night you told me that you wanted to sulk. Yes, you used the word "sulk" just because I didn't want to let you play anymore!
- I sometimes try to add some Hokkien when I talk to you, so you know some Hokkien words. Very limited, but better than none I guess.

Food:
- Still a picky eater as ever. Favourite food is pumpkin moi moi. Kakak is always asked what she cooked for your lunch. If it's vegetable moi moi, she knows to cook a smaller portion, because you will have all sorts of excuse on why you don't want the moi moi (too full, not hungry, stomach has no more place...). But Ah Ma says that you'll then "share" her lunch later on!
- Self-feeding very well. But you get lazy and I end up having to feed you the balance of the food, or else you'll not eat up your lunch/dinner.
- Fruits are no longer a favourite. The only reason you would eat is when you had a hard time doing your poo poo. Still, you are not keen to try out new fruits no matter how we try to persuade you to open your mouth. We'd only end up with you covering your mouth like this.
- You are quite fine with the food that we eat for dinner. Daddy says you are like me, we need gravy in our rice before we can eat. And you also love drinking soup. You've taken to imitating someone by drinking directly from the bowl!

Potty training:
- 100% wee wee trained at home and 100% poo poo trained at home and out.
- There were several "accidents" on your carseat and so far so good since then *touch wood*.. all is fine. But we still go out with a Mamy Poko pants in my handbag and spare pants in the car.
- Thank goodness you give us enough warning on the need to wee wee and so we have time to bring you to the nearest toilet.
- Taught you to pull down your pants and underwear, stand on the little stool in our bathroom and wee wee and you loved the idea. But 1 week later, you decided to wee wee using another style. How? By climbing up the WC. And you even told me 2 nights ago that you could go by yourself "No need mummy to help"! I was worried that you might fall down, so I peeked at you and quickly pretended to be watching TV when you were done.

You & Me:
- Sometimes you get it right sometimes, you still refer to daddy as "your daddy" when you're talking to Ah Kong
- When referring to yourself, you sometimes say "mine" or "me" and yet there are times when you still say "Evan's"

Learning:
- You know your capital letters very well. Boh-boh Poh had advised that you learn the capital letters properly before we taught the lower caps. Well.. you know your alphabets well, so we've moved to lower caps, which is a little more difficult as you confuse the "p", "d" and "b" and also the "h" and "n". But it's ok, we'll take it easy and slowly learn them ok?
- Drawing is one of your favourite pastimes. You're so lucky that you got all sorts of markers and books for your birthday. Now is the time to worry about you drawing on your clothes!
- Books are a favourite and you have some favourites that I try to read to you every night before we go to sleep.

Love:
- Of course you love us a lot. And we love you too. Sometimes you'll tell me "I nuff you mummy" and give me a big juicy kiss. Love it that you are so generous with your kisses.
- You love making lots of noise. This birthday also saw several noise makers. We are also guilty in buying you one of the noise makers. Sigh.. you wanted an electric (toy) guitar, so we bought it (much to our regret!). The manufacturer should provide ear plugs for the parents!
- Your cars and trains are never forgotten. You'll still make time to play with your garage and Thomas train set. On top of that you have a variety of Thomas & Friends VCD and books. Nanna had brought back the Thomas books that belonged to Ashley and Julian Ku-ku all the way from Singapore.

Manners:
- You know to cover your mouth when you sneeze (even when faking it).
- "Excuse me" is the word to use when you sneeze or even cough.
- Only thing that annoys me is when you purposely slurp when you drink your soup! The more I try to stop you, the louder it gets. Come to think about it, I think I haven't heard you slurping for a while. Maybe that phase has passed... phew.

It amazes me when I look back and see all the changes in you. No longer our little baby, still as precious as ever.

What came in the mail?

Something blue came in the mail yesterday. And it was addressed to you. The only other time you'd received something in the mail was from your Alan Ku-ku (so long ago that I cannot find the post anymore). This year Alan Ku-ku wished you a happy birthday via SMS and he was on time too.. Surprise, surprise!

Who sent you something this time? It's your Ying Ying Kor Kor and Jack Hou Chek Chek in Australia. There was even a message for you.

"Things to do when you are 3:

1. Be a good boy

2. Eat veggie

3. Read more books"

When asked if you did any of the 3 listed, you said no to #1 & #2! What do you think of this Thomas & Friends card?

Tricked You

That's what you told me yesterday. Well, it sounded more like "I twiked you". And why did you tell me this? Because we were all ready to go to bed when you told me that you needed to wee wee (despite already wearing diapers). And of course you insisted that you needed to wee wee in the toilet (sign of successful potty training?).

Asked you to get daddy to help you with undressing and turning on the bathroom lights, but you insisted "Only mummy". You sat and sat on the toilet and nothing came out. Obviously, since you'd just wee weed 15 minutes ago... And after giving you a smack on your bottom, you laughed and told me "I twiked you.. hahha".

How do we get angry when you can tell me such a thing?

Countdown: 3 days to birthday party (Yup, another party in Ipoh to celebrate with the Bans)

A Birthday Treat

One of the presents that you got from the party was a bicycle. Yup, Ah Kong and Ah Ma bought you a bicycle for your birthday. Mummy and daddy had initially planned to buy you one only after we'd moved back to Minden Heights, but they were insistent on getting you one for your birthday.

Since you were not allowed to ride the bicycle in the condo, we decided to bring you to your favourite place, Youth Park on Sunday. And as usual it was so crowded. We had to park at the furthest carpark and double back to the roller-skating rink. So how did you get to the rink? Why by your "daddy-powered" bicycle, of course!

Looks like you're enjoying the bicycle ride, huh? But we had a tough time trying to teach you how to ride. You'd step on the pedal for around 45 degrees then somehow pull the pedal back and step on it again. Not the right way to ride the bicycle, but it still works.. you were still moving!

Posing with your bicycle

We let you ride the bicycle for a while before we headed to the playground. You always love the tunnel slides and all the playthings things in the playground. Halfway through playing, there was a commotion. What had happened? There was a green snake (probably fell from the trees) and was trying to get away from the crowd. Ok, that was the signal for us to leave. After all we were parked to far away and it was already 7p.m.. Furthermore it looked like it was going to rain heavily too. You weren't too willing to leave, but in the end we left with you on your daddy-powered bicycle to the carpark.

What did you remember from this trip to the Youth Park? Only one thing. The snake! Yup, Ah Ma told me that you told her about "people telling you there was a snake". And you told me the same thing that night when I asked you what you did at the Youth Park too.

It's Party Time...

Our guests started arriving after 7.00p.m. But there were still things to do. Sigh.. At long last, as the rest of our guests arrived, the food were also ready. What did we serve? Well, mummy and daddy made the bruschetta, Ah Ma cooked the fried angel hair pasta and breaded prawns and we ordered fried belacan chicken and pizza. A little western food style (except for the belacan chicken, of course).

Managed to freshen up before putting the finishing touches on the bruschetta and dinner was served. I'm sure everyone enjoyed the food. Even the kiddies ate the same as ours, only a little different: pasta without the basil and prawns without the shells. Wine, juice, coke and water were served to everyone, and you even got to drink the peach juice, which somehow you decided to call "grape juice" and when corrected you'd call it "peach grape juice". And you had a wonderful time toasting with Kelvin!

After the food was cleared away and dessert was served, it was time for the cake. What was the design that you picked? Why Thomas, of course... Last week when I asked you, you told me that you wanted "Bob the Builder", but knowing how you change your mind, I printed several other cartoon characters and in the end (not surprisingly) you picked Thomas. Nice? It's vanilla with blueberry flavour as you'd requested.

After cutting the cake, we had the cake with the Haagen-Dazs ice-cream that we'd bought. Then to your favourite part of your party, opening the presents. Yes, I know we'd asked for our guests not to bring you any gifts BUT they didn't feel the party complete without giving you anything since it is your birthday.

So to our guests, thank you for all those wonderful gifts. Evan loved them and I hope that you liked the gift that you took home with you too.

Party was great and you only slept after midnight!

A Busy Saturday

The menu was planned, but we still had loads to do. Decorate the place (no more 50 balloons like last year!), pick up the cake, buy ice-cream and baguette for the bruschetta, feed ourselves and buy more balloons (as you had requested). As this was the first weekend of Cheng Beng, we decided to have lunch in the Tanjung Tokong area before we go battle with the heavy traffic.

After lunch, we headed to the toy shop nearby Prangin Mall to pick up more balloons, the stick for the balloons, mask for the party pack and a pump. Next stop was Giant supermarket as daddy did not particularly like the baguette from Cold Storage. Too bad the baguette sold there didn't look very appealing. So off we went to pick up the cake from Maxim's in Pulau Tikus. This year we wanted a change to the cake, so we ordered the cake from Maxim's and the design was picked by you.

We made one last stop to pick up the ice-cream and baguette from Cold Storage. Since there was no other choice, we had to settle for the baguette from there. By then, it was pass 3.00p.m. and I needed to make you that you had your nap..otherwise, we'd have a grumpy little boy (not baby anymore? Sigh... ). Good thing we settled all that was to be done in one go. So home we went to settle you for your nap and for us to call to order some food, start decorating the place and prepare the tomatoes for the bruschetta.

By the time you woke up, we were almost ready for the party. Only needed to go out to buy ice and to pick up the fried belacan chicken for the party.

That Day FINALLY Came..

Yup, it's your 3rd birthday. And we even managed to give you a kiss and hug at the stroke of midnight. How come? Because you were all excited and energetic after the birthday party! And.. I forgot to let you wear this adorable hat that Aunty Joey had lent us. So I we let you wear the hat, snap a few pictures, cuddle and kiss you a little more before we headed to bed. Don't know about you, but I was soooo tired. Phew.. what a busy day it was!

Party Invitation

Here's the invitation that was printed and given to our party guests:

The quickpage conveniently had 3 places for me to put in pictures, so I put in pictures of you at different ages. Hope our guests liked it.

Countdown: 1 day to your birthday

Alamak..

Yup, there was an accident again yesterday. I'm very surprised that this happened as it has not happened before. Ever since we started to let you sleep without diapers, you'd managed to control your bladder and only wee wee after waking up. On other words, accidents only happened after you'd woken up (either wee on my bed or on the floor). But this time it seems that you'd wee wee in your sleep. Ah Ma told us that you woke up and started to cry, upset that you'd wet our quilt.

She said that you were very touchy after that and every little thing made you burst into tears after that incident. Of course, by the time we got back, you were back to your normal cheerful self and happily admitted to wetting our bed when asked.

On another note, you've managed to pick the Malay word "alamak". Hehe.. your version of it is "anamak". Another word that you picked (after we brought you to the nearby pasar malam) was "pasar malam". You'll ask me "Mummy how to say 'night market'?" And so you'll repeat the word "manamana" when you're in a funny mood or sometimes say it (almost) correctly "pasa mana".. well close enough.

It's Wednesday already?

How time is flying by. And my little guy is turning 3 this Sunday. So what did we manage to do on Friday when daddy and I took leave? Nothing much... We had an appointment with the Relationship Manager in the morning. And since we woke up too late, we didn't get to eat my toast + half-boiled eggs (which I had been craving for so long.. Ok, ok we can make that at home, but it's more fun when someone else makes them!) we had to head directly to the bank.

Next we went to the shop that we intended to have breakfast for lunch. Had the yummiest mee goreng and daddy even ordered the toast + eggs. You had you usual "dry noodle" (i.e. wan tan mee). Next we went to Gurney Plaza to walk around and buy some balloons for your birthday party. We even looked at which toy to buy for your birthday. But we didn't buy. Daddy was a little upset since he'd promised you that he'd buy you something on that day, but I said that you'll not wait another week to play with the present if you see us buying it. So we left and to make up for that, we had Gelatissimo. Aiya.. so outdated, as I'd only realised that our favourite gelato is now selling in Gurney Plaza. Ooo.. it was the yummiest treat ever!

By the time we left Gurney Plaza, you were getting grumpy. I guess it's close to your nap time. But we headed to the cake shop to order your birthday cake. Too bad we had to make another round before we finally found a parking slot. And it had started to rain too! And by the time daddy parked the car, you'd already fallen asleep. No wonder you were so quiet in your carseat! What to do? We had to cancel our plan and head back home.

We had so many things to carry up but we managed it without you waking up at all. Friday ended with you going for a swim (finally) in our condo's newly extended swimming pool. Yippee.. I'd bought you a pair of arm floats with Thomas and Percy printed on them and you loved them. Took you a while to get used to the idea of "swimming", of course that doesn't mean that you'd swim without holding on to me. It only mean that you didn't cling on to me like a leech!

Its already Wednesday. Is everything ready for the party this Saturday? Er... I think we still have some little things to buy and get ready. I just hope that I don't leave out anything.. (especially your present.. )

Countdown: 3 days to your party, 4 days to your birthday

I'm so happy...

Yay! We're taking the day off tomorrow. Lots of errands to run and things to get ready for your birthday. I have a long list of things to do and to buy. Hope that we have enough time to do everything.

On another note, daddy says that maybe you should wear diapers to avoid any "accidents" from happening. I forgot to mention earlier.. you have another "accident" in your carseat on Sunday. Sigh.. so before we go off tomorrow, have to fit on your carseat in daddy's car again. Maybe we need to plan our itinerary for tomorrow to see if there are enough "pit stops" that you can use so that you can go without a diaper tomorrow.

Countdown: 9 days to your party, 10 days to your birthday

What did you say?

You're turning 3 soon. And yet, there are times that you seem to prefer your baby talk. Sometimes, I think you just do that for fun. You got your own set of names for everyone at home. What are they?

Ah Kong ~ Ong Kong

Ah Ma ~ Am Pan

Mummy ~ Pam Pin

Daddy ~ Ten Ting

Kakak Wati ~ Kang Kang Poti

Milk ~ Ten ten (this stopped after we told you "OK, ten ten is veggies")

And some days you will just make names for everything from the amplifier to the DVD player then chortle away as we try to correct you (Of course ignoring us too!).

Yay! Your birthday is coming.. and we're not really prepared yet.

Countdown: 11 days to your party. 12 days to your birthday

A Missed Day at the Youth Park

It's been a while since we've been to the Youth Park. And on Saturday, daddy had promised you that we'd go there. So despite having gone out the whole day (in daddy's case. We both had our afternoon nap while he went out), we headed to the Youth Park at around 5.45pm. Traffic was rather heavy and so by the time we arrived at the Youth Park, it was after 6.00 pm and there were a lot of cars. Only then did we notice several banners hanging along the way to the Youth Park. What's going on? There was a Relay for Life which had just started.

Nevermind, we kept our hopes up on being able to get a parking slot. But.. no chance! The nearest slot that we could find was nearer to the Botanical Gardens than to the Youth Park. I tried to convince you to go to Botanical Gardens instead, but you refused and the flood gates opened! Sigh...

So we had to find another playground quickly. Daddy took a short-cut to get away from the Youth Park/Botanical Gardens and we remembered that there was a playground in that housing estate! Yay! So we stopped there for you to play and you were happy with that arrangement. It was a small playground with 2 slides, 3 rickety swings and 1 see-saw. But you were happy with that. The pictures says it all:

Happy Birthday to Ee-ee!

Happy Birthday to your Ee-ee. Want to know how old she is? Don't ask me, ask her.... Hehe...

Here are some of the pictures that you'd taken with her.. I nicked it off her Facebook!

Celebrating your 1st birthday

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